- Siemens is among the first to take cognizance of the tremendous opportunities cities offer as customers

LONDON, Dec. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan is proud to present the 2012 Global Award for Company of the Year in the 'City as a Customer' market to Siemens Infrastructure and Cities Sector. This prestigious award recognizes a company's best practices in identifying global Mega Trends and their implications, and subsequently pioneering products and services to take a competitive lead in servicing this new client base and its unmet needs.

The Visionary Innovation Research group of Frost & Sullivan conducts cutting-edge visionary research by tracking the most important global Mega Trends, potential scenarios of specific trends in 2020 and beyond, and the macro to micro implications of these trends.

The Visionary Innovation Research teams have conducted extensive work on urbanization, smart as well as sustainable cities, and have identified "City as a Customer" as a New Mega Trend that will force companies to re-organize their organization structure and strategy and create new white space market opportunities. This award category is to recognize best practices of those companies who have rightly identified "this trend and its implications and have accordingly pioneered products and services to take a competitive lead in servicing their existing and new client base with their unmet needs.

Cities in the future would have transformed from being a mere hub of economic activity and growth to being full-fledged customers, demanding highly customized, unique and innovative city concepts and infrastructure solutions. With 60 percent of population in urban areas, 35 Mega Cities, 21 Mega Regions, and 21 Mega Corridors by 2025 globally, Frost & Sullivan expects companies to be in a serious scramble to capitalize on the opportunities offered by burgeoning populace and global city infrastructure spending.

Visionary companies will try to meet that demand either by revamping their divisions or by partnering with companies that boast of "city infrastructure" capabilities. Frost & Sullivan's recent research shows that Siemens is one company that is setting a precedent to win the urban race for city opportunities.

The company has adopted a simple yet effective strategy. Already an integrated technology company with business areas (known as Sectors) in industry, energy and healthcare, Siemens AG has unveiled a strategic move to create a fourth Sector called Infrastructure and Cities (IC) to exploit the future city infrastructure spending and compete with its rivals that sell city infrastructure solutions in the urban sector.

"Siemens has cleverly combined its existing capabilities and competencies" explained Frost & Sullivan Program Manager, Visionary Innovation Research Group, Archana Amarnath. "This strategy has now opened doors to a €2 trillion market of annual global city infrastructure spending – out of which Siemens has an addressable market of €300 billion per year."

The "Infrastructure & Cities" sector provides innovative and customized city concepts for mayors and urban planners spanning right from integrated mobility solutions and city research to consultative selling cooperation with cities.

"With its new IC division, Siemens offers one of the most competent and comprehensive portfolios for urban infrastructure solutions," noted Ms. Amarnath. "By bundling its competencies related to city business and creating a targeted approach, the company now has a distinct competitive advantage over its rivals in the urban space. It has leveraged on a combination of its success factors – a global network of city account managers, the ability to replicate successful city solutions and the capability of delivering both unbundled and packaged city solutions by integrating one or all of the competencies of its different business areas."

The newly installed City Account Manager (CiAM) program forges relationships with mayors and urban planners and offers customized solutions depending on the need and requirement of each city. Additionally, City Centers of Competence focuses on improving urban planning competencies for technologies, different ways of bundling technical know-how and partnering with institutions such as NGOs, think tanks and universities.

Given its current and future capabilities in the city infrastructure space, Siemens Infrastructure & Cities is undoubtedly a proven contender and a worthy winner of the 2012 Global Company of the Year Award for leveraging on "City as a Customer."

Frost & Sullivan's Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

The Siemens Infrastructure & Cities Sector (Munich, Germany), with approximately 87,000 employees, offers sustainable technologies for metropolitan areas and their infrastructures. Its offerings include integrated mobility solutions, building and security technology, power distribution, smart grid applications, and low- and medium-voltage products. The Sector comprises the Divisions Rail Systems, Mobility and Logistics, Low and Medium Voltage, Smart Grid, and Building Technologies. For more information, visit http://www.siemens.com/infrastructure-cities.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants.

The Integrated Value Proposition provides support to our clients throughout all phases of their journey to visionary innovation, including: research, analysis, strategy, vision, innovation and implementation.

The Partnership Infrastructure is entirely unique as it constructs the foundation upon which visionary innovation becomes possible. This includes our 360 degree research, comprehensive industry coverage, career best practices as well as our global footprint of more than 40 offices.

For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Is your organization prepared for the next profound wave of industry convergence, disruptive technologies, increasing competitive intensity, Mega Trends, breakthrough best practices, changing customer dynamics and emerging economies?

SYS-CON Events announced today that Fusic will exhibit at the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Pavilion at SYS-CON's 21st International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on Oct 31 – Nov 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Fusic Co. provide...

As businesses evolve, they need technology that is simple to help them succeed today and flexible enough to help them build for tomorrow. Chrome is fit for the workplace of the future — providing a secure, consistent user experience across a range of devices that can be used anyw...

SYS-CON Events announced today that Taica will exhibit at the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Pavilion at SYS-CON's 21st International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on Oct 31 – Nov 2, 2017, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Taica manufacture...